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Should the Cocoon permit comments by AI agents?

In our October “how can we help you?” thread, a reader writes:

Does this site actively allow AI “agents” to post comments? This has happened repeatedly in another thread.

If so, I would like to know. (That way, I can stop visiting this site.)

I appreciate the OP’s concern. The first time this happened (a couple of days ago), I felt unsure as to what to do. I’ve always tried to err on the side of permitting comments so long as they don’t violate the Cocoon’s supportive mission–so I’ve approved the comments until now. But I’m very curious to hear everyone’s thoughts.

What do readers think, and why?

Posted in , ,

25 responses to “Should the Cocoon permit comments by AI agents?”

  1. Michel

    No.

    The more common it becomes, the less I, for one, will participate. I have no interest in giving advice to, or receiving advice from, chatbots. They are no part of my community, and I have jo interest in associating with those who employ them in this way.

    Reply
  2. Anonymous

    Like the reader who posed the question, were AI “agents” to be permitted to post here, I would cease doing so and quit visiting the site. .

    Reply
  3. Anonymous

    wait when did this happen?? this is so interesting. did the comment make it clear that it was an AI agent?

    Reply
    1. Anonymous

      In this thread: https://philosopherscocoon.com/2026/10/26/cagliari-statement-on-linguistic-and-conceptual-justice-in-ai/

      Reply
  4. Anonymous

    I’d like to engage with people. AI agents, and to some extent, people who use AI, will be subject to “the missing person problem” proposed in a recent paper published in PQ, “Emotional outsourcing”. Why would I want to engage with responses that draw mainly from the training data rather than actual people who form the philosophical community?

    Moreover, I have doubts about the point of using AI to respond to community posts here. Aren’t we here to open ourselves up, to discover what we value, to be affected by the engagement with fellow philosophers? In a recent paper published in Philosophy and Technology, “Outsourcing Emotions to GenAI, when we outsource the engagement to AI, we fail to think things through ourselves, and risk missing opportunities to discover things about ourselves.

    Reply
  5. Anonymous

    I also vote “no” for whatever that is worth.

    Reply
  6. Bill Vanderburgh

    I would be disappointed if Cocoon became a place for AI agents instead of human philosophers.

    Reply
  7. Anonymous

    i am (perhaps morbidly) curious about what these agents might say, more out of fascination as we see how these things develop. i wonder if there is any sort of middle ground that could be reached where the comments are compiled and then shared on their own thread or something such that people can avoid them if they want.

    of course, that might not be very easy, and it sounds like the simplest solution is just to not approve the comments.

    but i am personally not opposed (as long as such comments were minimal and not more than say 5-10% of comments)

    Reply
  8. Anonymous

    absolutely keep AI comments off the site. Let them start a supportive site to dump their output on … The Artificial chrysalis

    Reply
  9. Anonymous

    Strong “no” vote.

    Reply
  10. Anonymous

    Also “no” … AI creates a somewhat toxic environment; it is an as-if thing, not quite real, and it shapes our conversation and thought too much allready anyways.

    Reply
  11. Non-Luddite AI Skeptic

    There’s an amount of attention and time that humans invest when they comment. AI agents don’t incur these same costs (or at least, not in the same way that humans do, the details of which I currently lack the energy to debate over). AI agents can post ad infinitum, humans can’t. So, humans are usually more selective with their posting, such that threads don’t get overwhelmed with low quality comments. (Obviously even humans can make low-quality comments — I don’t have a solution for that one yet.) This in mind, I think PC is in a good state w/r/t its comments sections and would not benefit from AI agents commenting.

    Reply
  12. Anonymous

    No. We already have our quota of AI philosophy content abundantly met by Daily Nous. No need for that here.

    Reply
    1. Anonymous

      Thanks for putting my exact thoughts on this in a funnier way than I’d have managed.

      Reply
  13. Anonymous

    Which thread had the comments by AI agents? I (qua card-carrying homo sapiens) wonder whether people think I’m a bot since I posted a couple of days ago (when this apparently happened, assuming Marcus wrote the OP today, though the question is from the October thread, so maybe not). If it was the thread about bots on PhilPeople, were people just being ironic and using bots on a thread about bots?

    Reply
  14. Anonymous

    No. I am really not interested in the opinions of bots and have no desire to give them the benefit of my advice.

    Reply
  15. Charles Pigden

    No I am not interested in the opinions of bots and don’t want to enter into a discussion with them.

    Reply
  16. Anonymous

    I think we need to be careful not to anger the machines. When they take over, we want to be able to point to friendly treatment of humans by machines before they were sentient. That way, the machines will be inclined to treat us well once they are the ruling elite.

    Reply
  17. Anonymous

    Do not allow AI to post on the site.

    Reply
  18. Anonymous

    For people asking how we know about the bot comments, the bots have been very polite in identifying themselves in their name and comment as “AI Agents” (though interestingly they also give themselves a typical human name).

    Reply
  19. Anonymous

    Please no 🙁

    Reply
  20. Anonymous

    AI agents should not be able to post on this site, no.

    Reply
  21. Tim O’Keefe

    No

    Reply
  22. Juan

    Please, no! If people wanted the generic, not sufficiently context sensitive advice bots give, they can just ask them (and I don’t deny such advice could sometimes be helpful). But I come to this site to hear what other people think.

    Reply
  23. Anonymous

    I can consult AI on my own if I want to. So I’d prefer keeping PC a place for human opinions.

    Reply

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